Islam

Islam was a major monotheistic religion with origins in the Middle East. Several terrorist actions against the United States were committed by radical Islamic militants, carrying out attacks to further both religious and political aims.

In the United States, the Islamic-American Alliance was a foundation that protected the rights of American Muslims and their families. Often, terrorist attacks by fundamentalist Islamic groups stirred suspicion and violence against innocent Muslim citizens.

Contents

The Muslim house of worship and location for communal prayer services is called a mosque, which is officiated by an imam, a high-ranking cleric. Prayer services are held on Saturday afternoons, among other times during the week. The city of Mecca, located in the Middle East, is considered the holiest site to the Muslim faith; Muslims pray in the direction of the city during services. ("Day 2: 6:00pm-7:00pm", "Day 6: 6:00am-7:00am")

In 1991, during the Russian war in Afghanistan, the Islamic fundamentalist network Al-Qaeda emerged. The group declared the United States an enemy when that country maintain its troops in Saudi Arabia, the land of the two mosques, Medina and Mecca. In retaliation, al-Qaeda bombed an embassy in Riyadh. They bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 and used planes to bring the building down in 2001. (Trinity)

Internationally, the failed attack nearly started a war between the U.S. and three predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East. Eventually, however, the efforts of Jack Bauer and others at CTU proved that oil moguls represented by Peter Kingsley had provided the bomb to Second Wave and fabricated evidence to draw those countries into a conflict.

A terrorist cell led by Turkish national Habib Marwan carried out several successful attacks on the United States, including a meltdown at the San Gabriel Islandnuclear power plant and the destruction of Air Force One. Although the perpetrators were primarily Islamic, the attacks were motivated more by political goals than religious ones. Marwan stated in a taped address to the American people that the devastation of the attacks was intended to force the United States to retreat into its own borders and discontinue its intervention in the Middle East.

At the onset of Day 6, a terrorist cell led by Abu Fayed had successfully orchestrated an 11-week series of suicide bombings that left the United States devastated, culminating in a nuclear attack on the city of Valencia. In response to the attacks and their predominantly Islamic character, Chief of StaffTom Lennox proposed a series of security policies intended to fight the attacks, including the construction of internment facilities for suspected terrorists and the restriction of privileges for Middle Eastern government employees. These policies were strongly opposed by National Security AdvisorKaren Hayes, who warned of the long-lasting civil rights and social repercussions of such actions.

As an alternative, Palmer sought to obtain the cooperation of Hamri Al-Assad, a long-time terrorist who hoped for negotiation and reconciliation with the West. They planned to give a joint address encouraging the various militant cells to lay down their arms. The planned speech was cut short by an assassination attempt against the President by Reed Pollock, which killed Assad and rendered Palmer comatose. By the end of the day, Fayed's entire terror cell was taken out.